Truth About Why Your Cravings Lie in the Label
Happens all the time. I’ve seen how friends and clients go to the grocery store searching for “healthy foods” and end up being victims of misleading marketing. It even happens sometimes to me and to my husband. We surrender to our cravings!
Over the years, food manufacturers have become clever and creative about hiding unwanted ingredients in food labels. If something has the “organic” or “light” tag, we often think it’s healthier, when in most cases, it’s the opposite of healthy or natural!
If you were wondering why you still got cravings even though you eat “organic” or “healthy”, here’re some ugly truths for you.
The war against hidden sugar
Sugar comes in various presentations. A team of researchers at the University of North Carolina conducted a detailed study and found that 68 percent of processed foods and beverages had added sugar. Not only sweet foods but also many sauces, soups, fruit juices, and even meat products had added sugar.
If you are able to detect which foods or beverages have added sugar, you´ll have the power to control your diet and improve your eating habits for good.
The following list contains those words that really mean ADDED sugar. Whenever you read one of these, you should know you are about to consume something really unhealthy.
- agave juice
- agave nectar
- agave sap
- agave syrup
- beet sugar
- brown rice syrup
- brown sugar
- cane juice
- cane sugar
- cane syrup
- clintose
- confectioners powdered sugar
- confectioners sugar
- corn glucose syrup
- corn sweet
- corn sweetener
- corn syrup
- date sugar
- dextrose
- drimol
- dri mol
You choose quantity over quality
I’m sure you’ve heard before that quality is more important than quantity.
A small amount of low-quality fat (let’s say hydrogenated oil) can be more detrimental than a large amount of high-quality fat (like virgin organic coconut oil). The idea is to go for high-quality fats when possible.
Believe me, your body will thank you for this.
Also, remember to avoid trans fats at all cost! The Nurse’s Health Study of 80,000
women found that just a 2% increase in trans-fat consumption increased a woman’s risk of heart disease by 93%!
So please, be a responsible shopper and rather choose high-quality fats than low amounts of low-quality fats.
Don’t be fooled, calories don’t matter!
Truth is that the FDA’s methods for creating a nutrition facts label don’t distinguish between raw or cooked foods when it comes to calories. Recent studies seem to indicate that counting calories isn’t the answer to weight loss, what matters is rather what is eaten and who is eating it.
If you’re still counting calories, I have good news for you, you can stop!
But what should you do instead?
Eating wholesome, non-processed quality food is a good start. Eating food that fits your lifestyle and genetic composition is the next step and, ultimately, using a holistic body-mind-soul approach is the key to permanent weight loss.
Feeling like you need extra help to avoid cravings? If you eat at random hours and want to change your eating habits once and for all, I can help you build a sustainable action plan to overcome emotional eating and improve your overall health.
